1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device, an image processing method, and an image processing program stored on a computer-readable medium that combines recording materials (e.g. ink) of plural different colors such as cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y).
2. Description of Related Art
When images are printed by printers that print using plural colors of ink, part or all of the chromatic color ink, i.e. cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) is replaced by a neutral or achromatic ink such as black (K) to form dots. Controlling printing on such printers requires inputting image data, referencing a color conversion table, and converting the colors in the input image data to the corresponding colors defined in the color conversion table to produce a color-converted image.
This color conversion table is a lookup table that defines the correlation between the colors before and after conversion. More specifically, the table correlates colors expressed as gradations of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) to the amount of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) ink that is deposited when printing.
Printers commonly have several different color conversion tables, and the color conversion table that is referenced changes according to the printer settings. Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2003-237115, for example, discloses a method of acquiring printing conditions such as the number of passes, type of media, resolution, and dot size, and color converting the image data to change the ratio of chromatic ink to achromatic ink according to the acquired printing conditions. More specifically, separate lookup tables are provided according to the number of passes, type of media, resolution, and dot size, the lookup tables matching the printing conditions are selected, and the color conversion process is controlled according to the selected lookup table.
Because lookup tables are predefined for specific parameters such as the number of passes, media type, resolution, and dot size, the method taught in JP-A-2003-237115 does not allow for selections exceeding the preconfigured settings. More specifically, if the media type is set to plain paper, for example, the selected lookup table will always be a lookup table for plain paper. Because the color conversion tables are generally designed to yield the desired printing results when selected, color conversion tables that deviate from the settings are not selected.
However, if the print medium setting is set to plain paper but the quality of the plain paper that is actually loaded for use is poor, the expected printing results cannot be achieved even by referencing a predesigned color conversion table. It is desirable in such situations for the user to be able to actively change the color conversion table that is referenced for printing. However, because the user will not necessarily know enough about color conversion tables, a complicated process must be used to select the color conversion table.
Furthermore, in addition to being used for color conversion table selection, the settings input to a printer configuration screen are also reflected in the operating settings of such mechanical components as the carriage and paper transportation mechanism, and the print head. More specifically, once the print medium is selected in the printer configuration screen, the color conversion table to be referenced is selected and the operation of the mechanical components is configured. As a result, if the print medium selected in the printer configuration screen is changed in order to change the color conversion table that is used, the operating settings of the mechanical components also changes. For example, if the user actually wants to print on plain paper but the desired print quality will not be achieved because the quality of the paper that is loaded is poor, and the user changes the color conversion table to the color conversion table for “fine paper” in order to increase how much ink is deposited (the print density), it will still be difficult to print as desired because the operation of the mechanical components depends upon the print medium that is selected in the printer configuration screen.